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Posts Tagged ‘Inspiration’.

Successful developers all have something in common: the desire to create. To fully realize that creativity, they need to continually improve their skills. The web industry has grown from this desire to learn. You only need to look at the unwavering demand for conferences, workshops and training days for evidence of this.

For many companies, however, these sources of training require time and money that simply might not be available — especially when you consider that technologies evolve all the time. The cost of continually sending your team to workshops and training days can quickly become unsustainable.

To badge or not to badge? That is the question. Because badges — and a lot of stuff designed for conferences — often look the same. But if you have a little, different conference, you need different kinds of things. Badges included.

It all started in 2013 with the first Kerning conference. I was asked to design the official notebook: we ended up with a really typographic design for the cover and a funny pattern on the back. And an Easter egg on the cover — more on that later. It was a really funny project, so when my dear friend Cristiano Rastelli, a member of Kerning’s organizing committee, asked me to design the notebook and some printed materials for Kerning 2014 I immediately said “Yes, let’s start!”

Many companies and design agencies tend to look at the design and creativity stage from a narrow perspective. Usually, the design team is locked inside the ideas room with no contact with the rest of the world until it delivers the idea that gets approved by the client or project manager.

Once a project goes into crisis mode and stress increases, creativity is given an even more limited role in the project. This can be a result of the high cost of developing creative concepts or a lack of confidence that creative people are able to handle pressure and provide help at this critical stage of the project.

Handwritten text shows a personal side of its author, a side that is not easy to put into words and that contrasts with the standardized look of digital communication. This contrast and “aura” is perhaps what makes handwriting fonts so popular. As a typographer, I love handwriting, and in this article I’d like to share a hands-on overview of my creation process of a handwriting font.

Over the past four years, I’ve completed three typefaces inspired by handwriting. I started with the digitization of Albert Einstein’s handwriting and continued with Conspired Lovers, a font based on my own love-letter writing. In 2013, I ran a Kickstarter campaign to fund the creation of a font based on Sigmund Freud’s handwriting. The public interest in the project was overwhelming, and the Sigmund Freud typeface became the first typeface to be reviewed in the Wall Street Journal.

If you see graphic design as a process of arranging shapes on a canvas, then you’re only seeing half of what you work with. The negative space of the canvas is just as important as the positive elements that we place on the canvas.

Design is an arrangement of both shapes and space. To work more effectively with space, you must first become aware of it and learn to see it — learn to see the shapes that space forms and how space communicates. This is second part of a series on design principles for beginners. The first part covered an introduction to gestalt; the rest of the series (including this post) will build on those gestalt principles and show how many of the fundamental principles we work with as designers have their origin there.

Having started his career studying under some of the best typographic minds in the world, Khajag Apelian not only is a talented type and graphic designer, unsurprisingly, but also counts Disney as a client, as well as a number of local and not-for-profit organizations throughout the Middle East.

Even more impressive is Khajag’s willingness to take on work that most people would find too challenging. Designing a quality typeface is a daunting task when it’s only in the Latin alphabet. Khajag goes deeper still, having designed a Latin-Armenian dual-script typeface in four weights, named "Arek", as well as an Arabic adaptation of Typotheque’s Fedra Display.

This article is part of a new series about design principles that can serve both as a refresher for seasoned designers and reference for newcomers to the industry. Hopefully, the content covered here isn't too obvious and self-explanatory, but it's always great to have a nice quick refresher every now and again, isn't it? — Ed.

In 1910, psychologist Max Wertheimer had an insight when he observed a series of lights flashing on and off at a railroad crossing. It was similar to how the lights encircling a movie theater marquee flash on and off.

When I gave this talk a title, I called it “A Modern Designer’s Canvas,” because originally I was going to talk about the tools and processes that I use when I’m designing. But being a good designer or developer is about so much more than knowing how to use tools. It’s also about the way we approach what we do and our attitude towards it.

I’m going to talk about four lessons that can help us do what we do better. These have been important to me, especially over the last challenging few years, when how we make websites has changed so much. They’re lessons that I learned a long time ago, at art school:

Arabic calligraphy was originally a tool for communication, but with time, it began to be used in architecture, decoration and coin design. Its evolution into these major roles was a reflection of the early Muslims’ need to avoid, as their beliefs required, figures and pictorials that were used as idols before Islam was established in the Arabian Peninsula.

While the Arabic tribes preferred to memorize texts and poetry, the first Muslims tried to document their holy book (Qur’an Kareem) using the scripts that we’ll look at in this article. In order to understand how these scripts developed into the beautiful and complex shapes we know today, we have to understand the history of Arabic calligraphy.

2013 was a busy year for me for conferences and travel. It was also the year I attended my first (and second) WordCamp. The first was WordCamp UK in July, where I met Mike Little, one of the two co-founders of WordPress.

Three months later, I was honored to meet the other co-founder, Matt Mullenweg, twice in three weeks: at WordCamp Europe in Leiden, and at The Summit. I was lucky enough to have both Matt and Mike participate in interviews for this post about WordPress, including its history, community and future.

Anthony Burrill is one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary graphic design, known for his thought-provoking posters, printed traditionally in letterpress. He has never worked for another design firm, and his first studio was at home — at his kitchen table.

Upon graduating in 1991, he has worked independently in loose collaboration with friends, designers, artists and a number of institutions such as the Design Museum. Some of his most famous work is self-published making graphic design, a standalone discipline in itself.

To be a Web professional is to be a lifelong learner. The ever-changing landscape of our industry requires us to continually update and expand our knowledge so that our skills do not become outdated. One of the ways we can continue learning is by attending professional Web conferences. But with so many seemingly excellent events to choose from, how do you decide which is right for you?

During the course of my career, I have had the good fortune to attend a number of conferences, workshops and professional events. I am often asked by Web professionals who are preparing to attend their first conference how they can select the right one for their needs.

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As designing static pages has become untenable, many have started to approach design in a modular way.
In this book, we’ll identify what makes an effective design system that empowers teams to
create great digital products.
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Today, too many websites are still inaccessible. In our new book
Inclusive Design Patterns, we explore how to craft
flexible front-end design patterns and make future-proof and accessible interfaces without extra effort. Hardcover, 312 pages.
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Meet the new Sketch Handbook, our brand
new Smashing book that will help you master all the tricky, advanced facets of Sketch. Filled with
practical examples and tutorials in 12 chapters, the book will help you become more proficient in your work.
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Trends don’t matter, but techniques do.
With SmashingConf Barcelona, we’ll explore problems,
smart solutions and lessons learned from actual projects.
Taking place on October 17–18 at the Palau de la Música Catalana.
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Home sweet home! On September 11–12th, we're gathering for our 6thSmashingConf Freiburg right next to the legendary Black Forest.
With Umar Hansa, Rachel Andrew, Alla Kholmatova, Chris Wright, and others.
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